Enter Dr. Bishop

[dr_bishop]

Who: Dr. Walter Bishop and anyone who'd like to join (open)
When: Mid Day
Where: Lobby
What: Walter and Gene check in.

Comments

[bluesuit_handy]

Handy was back to trying to find the movie theater and watch a romantic comedy in secret, but the hotel wasn't cooperating with him. He'd found the banquet hall, sure, and had a nice lunch (brunch? Did putting eggs on his hamburger make it brunch?), but since then he'd not been able to find anything but the lounge and the games room.

He entered the lobby just in time to see an older man walk in, an enormous grin on his face, and ask for not one, but two rooms. Handy raised an eyebrow and stepped forward, coming to a stop a few feet away from the man and leaning on his crutch.

"Did you just get here?" he asked, though the answer seemed fairly obvious.

[dr_bishop]

"Yes!" Walter said with a bit of excitement turning to look at the thin man. "I am Doctor Walter Bishop." He reached out his right hand to greet the man formally then pointed out the doors with his left, "And the heifer out there is Gene. We've just attived now." Still smilinge he added as an after thought. "Where have we arrived?"

[bluesuit_handy]

Handy couldn't help but smile a little at the man's enthusiasm, though what it was over he had no idea. He shook his hand willingly enough, but was quickly distracted by what the newcomer had to say. "A heifer?" he asked, eyebrows shooting up toward his hairline. "As in a cow?"

Shaking himself quickly, he dragged himself back on topic. "Sorry, right. I'm the Doctor, just the Doctor, that's all--sort of--and this is the, ah, Hotel California. It's sort of a prison, actually. None of us have been able to leave once we've arrived here." There--best to break the bad news quickly, if clumsily.

"But a cow? Really?" Handy stepped toward the door to have a look. So far as he knew, there had never been any animals at the hotel, let alone one of the bovine persuasion.

[dr_bishop]

"Prison?" Walter's face showed his confusion. "Did I have a trial? Or is this like Saint Claire's." He eyed The Doctor a bit closer, taking the measure of him as a would be psych patient. Leaning in he used a low voice and asked. "Did they blame you for killing an assistant too?"

[bluesuit_handy]

Handy couldn't help but overhear the clerk's explanation of the new accommodations for Walter's cow, particularly as he stepped closer in order to be sure he could be in on whatever was said.

"I can show you to the cafe or the banquet hall for the sandwich," said Handy, "but I'll be surprised if we find a lab anywhere. Like I said, though, doesn't hurt to look." He grinned. "And I am, a bit. It's not my specialty, but I'm sort of a Doctor of everything." He ignored the part where Walter had called him 'The Doctor' rather than just 'Doctor,' figuring that they were doing well enough as long as they were off the subject of Satanists.

[dr_bishop]

"If we should pass something on the way then we'll stop for sandwiches." Walter enunciated clearly but excitedly. "But I should much prefer to look for a laboratory, or check into the radiation shielding that is going on. I have worked extensively on time and instantaneous travel myself, but have always been blocked by the radiation effects that would kill the human body."

"Lead on good sir!" Dr Bishop made a grand gesture with one hand, thrilled to be in the where and the when that he currently found himself. "This is quite like a hallucinatory trip without the recreational drugs! If it would not be impolite, may I ask, when are you from?"

[bluesuit_handy]

"Alright, a laboratory search it is," grinned Handy, turning to lead the way through one of the doors leading to the hall. "Just try all the doors you pass; that's generally the best way to find something around here if it's willing to be found."

He laughed at Walter's comparison between the hotel and a drug trip, and took in a breath through his teeth at the following question. "Oh, well," he said, hobbling along. "That's a bit complicated. It was 2012 when I was brought here, though."

[bluesuit_handy]

"The guest rooms don't move," said Handy, "so it makes enough sense that they're assigned. We have..." he thought for a moment, "ten rooms or so on each floor, all the floors from the first to the third are more or less filled, plus a few on the two floors above that...at least thirty? There's a roster being kept."

[dr_bishop]

"Well that is less worrying that the guest rooms don't move. Thirty to fourty guests doesn't seem like much for such a large hotel." Walter smiled. "It will probably be gratifying to you and the others that you don't open your assigned room to find a cow in it."

[bluesuit_handy]

"It'll seem like even less when you find out how easy it is to go for days without running into anyone if you don't arrange a meeting in advance," replied Handy. "And yes," he said with a grin, "probably."

[dr_bishop]

"Is there a roll call? Does everyone meet for dinner?" If the hotel were like a prison, everyone would eat in the same mess hall. "At St. Claire's we all met in the day room. We each had our own activities, but we were all together for a few hours most every day. Unless of course someone had an incident." Walter met The Doctor's gaze. "I do not like butterscotch pudding."

[bluesuit_handy]

"There's at least one case of two people who knew each other on the outside being here from slightly different universes," nodded Handy, munching the chips. "And I was in a different universe from my original self when I was brought here, anyway."

He thought it over. "Most of the people here are humans from the early twenty-first century, so there aren't too many who would have any reason to know anything about reality bubbles."

[dr_bishop]

"That makes it sound even less than random. Which proves and disproves different theories." Sipping at his beverage he shorthanded a few more notes on the cloth.

"So, you travel from planet to planet helping people, the three of you? I take it you had been to earth before."

[bluesuit_handy]

"Earth is sort of a second home," admitted Handy. "I've probably spent more time there than on any one other planet. And it's not like I go looking for trouble--but if something's not right, I can't just ignore it, now, can I?"

[dr_bishop]

"Constantly running around, trying to right the wrongs of mad scientists everywhere? Did you say that you were here from twenty twelve but had been to more future times as well? That would mean that you were righting the wrongs of mad scientists every when as well! That would be something Peter would excell at. Actually Peter already does excell at it." This was an inordinantly good grilled cheese sandwich.

[dr_bishop]

"It was far more real than just seeing things. When it happened there was a very tactile sense to it. It felt like a memory that you couldn't quite place, but it had all the sensory remembrance of it."

Walter finished off his can of soda and then continued. "We tinkered with building the gateway opening device. There were other projects that took precedence. But eventually, yes, we were able to create gateways."

[bluesuit_handy]

Handy didn't need to ask why they'd felt the need to create gateways to alternate universes. They were humans. Exploring things just because they were there was just what they did, regardless of the repercussions.

"What did you find on the other side?" he asked. "Was it all just little differences like the wastebaskets and the ties?"

[dr_bishop]

"For the most part, yes, just little things. It seemed to have the same people though.". Walter startled as a new thought occurred to him. "I neglected to pack for this trip!"

[bluesuit_handy]

"You didn't know you were coming here," Handy pointed out. Then, remembering, "And that's something else I forgot to mention, actually. When you go up to your room, you're going to find things there that belong to you. Everyone else has, at least."